When the Duke was still alive, he said James was his favorite actor on the scene. Too bad his resume and charisma weren’t enough to get a string of movies shown on TCM this year. Today is the 75th anniversary of the original King Kong and Charlton Heston’s death overshadowed all else.
I wrote much more about him two years ago but before we turned off our cable last year, I saw Sunset which starred him and the always underwhelming Bruce Willis. It was the second time James portrayed Wyatt Earp in this rather odd “what if” story set in 1929 and directed by Blake Edwards. It was certainly better than his throwaway flicks such as Tank because Garner’s presence, along with Malcolm McDowell’s villainy, prevented it from being a complete waste. I do recommend it to fans of Garner’s work and they don’t mind all the historical inaccuracies about Earp’s life; he retired to LA and remained there until his death contrary to the ending.
Recently, I wrote about Alec Baldwin for his 50th and had the great luck of finding Miami Blues but Ethan showed me how funny he is on 30 Rock; I need to borrow the DVDs of this.
I think I will push my luck on finding a copy of Jimbo’s stronger action-comedies such as Skin Game or How Sweet it is! before I throw in the towel and settle for The Notebook which is easier to find at Blockbuster.